Homemade Ice Cream Infused with Lemon, Ginger and Cannabis

Today I learned that I could make homemade cannabis infused ice cream from scratch without using refined sugar, edible oils and the gum fillers that are typically used to make  commercially prepared ice cream. That translates into a healthier recipe with a hand-full of recognizable ingredients that you can easily pronounce.

(Wow!!! I didn't think that I could do it either...make cannabis infused ice-cream, that is.)

Yet, here we are.

(Now, this recipe will make a very nice non-cannabis ice-cream too. Just omit the 1/4 cup of infused bee honey and increase the amount of regular bee honey from 3/4 cup to 1 cup. This will ensure that all your ratios will remain the same.)

I'm not going to sugar coat this.

It's a long process of chemical reactions and infusions. Some taking longer than others and spanning over a few days.

This is not a recipe that you can make in the morning and enjoy in the afternoon. It requires cooking without curdling and combining after tempering with the grand finale being the right level of chill to churn the blend into soft ice cream. This can then be followed by hardening the mixture off further. By freezing the soft ice cream for another 24 hours, it will harden to the point that you will require some healthy arm muscles to scoop.

Yeah, it's a labour of love for sure.

I did think at one point, that the scene in our kitchen was starting to look more like a research lab, than the heart of our house. Between my notes, my camera and a line up of specialty kitchen appliances and tools, it looked a bit serious.

For a special occasion or just to have on-hand in case the mood strikes, I can attest to the fact that it is worth taking the time to make the effort. 

Here are the tools you'll need:

1. a magical butter machine;
2. a high speed blender;
3. a stand mixer with mixing bowl, plus, the paddle, and whisk attachment;
4. an ice-cream maker or ice-cream maker attachment for your stand mixer;
5. a fine mesh strainer;
6. a whisk;
7. a small sauce pan;
8. a medium size bowl to hold the milk blend;
9. a medium size pot (It should hold 3 litres);
10. a rasp to grate the ginger and lemon peel;
11. a medium size freezer-safe seal-able container (It should hold 3 litres); 
12. and a silicone or soft flexible spatula. 

Here are the ingredients that you'll need:

1. 1 litre of water buffalo milk or whole milk;
2. 250 ml of 35% heavy cream;
3. 6 egg yolks;
4. 3/4 cup of bee honey;
5. 1/4 cup of infused bee honey with the cannabis strain of your choice;
6. 2 tbsp of agave infused with vanilla beans;
7. the rind of 3 medium size lemons;
8. 1 inch piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and grated;
9. 1 tsp of cinnamon;
10. and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg;

Before we even start to make the ice cream, you must make the cannabis infused bee honey first. Here's one of my previous posts which will explain how to do it:

https://steemit.com/marijuana/@rebeccaryan/how-to-make-cannabis-infused-bee-honey

Directions:

• Grate the lemon rinds.

• Grate the ginger root.

• Add the water buffalo milk to the pitcher of the Magical Butter Machine.
• Then add all the lemon rind and grated ginger to the machine.

• Set the lid in place and set the temperature to 160 degrees F. Then, set the timer for 1 hour. (This will infuse the milk with lemon and ginger.)

• After the hour and the machine shuts off, strain the milk into a medium pot and discard any lemon rind and bits of ginger that the strainer caught.

• Put the pot on the stove and add the cinnamon and the nutmeg. (Don't turn the stove on yet. The milk mixture is quite hot and it needs to cool a little bit.)

• Blend well with a whisk.

• Just let this blend cool for a few minutes while you separate the egg yolks and blend them with the regular bee honey and vanilla infused agave syrup.

• Add 1 cup of 35% heavy cream and blend well.

• Temper the mixture containing the egg yolks by slowly adding 1 cup of the hot infused milk mixture to it. Whisk briskly. The goal is to even out the temperature of the two mixtures without cooking the egg yolks into a scramble. Add one more cup and whisk briskly.

• Then, pour the tempered mixture (containing the egg yolks) into the infused milk mixture. Set the flame to medium-low and gently heat until bubbles start to form around the edges of the pot.
• Simultaneously, gently warm the cannabis infused honey in a small sauce pan. Remove it from the heat as soon as it becomes thin and liquid-like in consistency.

• Pour the warmed milk and egg mixture into a high speed blender and add the cannabis infused honey. Make sure the lid is secured and blend on high speed for a minute. The goal is to make sure that the honey is evenly dispersed through-out the mixture.
• Strain this mixture one last time into a glass container with a lid. Make sure the lid is sealed and place it into the refrigerator to chill.
• Chill for 15 hours. (This part is exceptionally important. You must cool the ice cream mixture to between 2-5 degrees Celsius. The colder the mixture is, the better it will churn in the ice cream appliance.)
• Add the ice cream mixture to the ice cream appliance. (I'm using the ice cream maker Kitchenaid stand mixer attachment. I prepared it by freezing it for 48 hours in advance of churning the mixture.)

• Churn it for 30 minutes.

• As the mixture churns, it will freeze and thicken up to the consistency of soft-serve ice cream. As this blend is made predominantly from water buffalo milk, it could be called a "gelato" at this point. 
• Remove it from the ice cream maker and put into a freezer-safe container with a tightly closing lid.

• Freeze this soft ice cream for 24 hours to create hard, scoop-able  ice cream.

Enjoy! (Start with a baby size scoop.) ;)

I welcome your comments and invite you to join me at my table...there's always room for one more.

~ Rebecca Ryan